Playfair's Palace

Donaldson's School was designed by William Henry Playfair and built in 1841-51. Endowed originally as an orphanage, it latterly specialised as a school for the deaf, before that function moved to a new campus in West Lothian. Despite getting consent for conversion to flats, supported by a new-build crescent to the rear, the building stands empty, a victim of the recession that brought cold feet to the developer.

Donaldson's is one of Edinburgh's few Jacobean palaces, another example of Playfair's versatility and erudition. Few of us have seen the the building's beautiful internal courtyard; I am fortunate to be one of them, visiting just before the Deaf School departed.

It would be great to see a suitable use for this wonderful landmark building; preferably something a bit more ambitious than flats.